Hey all, I'm going to try to keep a journal of the next arc of my RT game... I had previously run my group through LoTEx, which I chronicled here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=159&efcid=3&efidt=412742

This next stage of the campaign will pick up about 2 terran years later, still on the Lathes, deep in the Calixis Sector. Explorator Lucius was largely spared any but the most cursory of questioning by Inquisitor Vownus Kaede, protected by the Mechanicus masters of the forge worlds. Remington, the Sabras dynasty warrant holder, endured much more severe interrogation... but did survive and was finally deemed un-corrupted and allowed to resume trading. The fate of Kaeliss of Burnscour (the Daemonslayer, Scourge of the Eldar etc etc...) is unknown and his former crew mates don't want to know!

When word reached the elders of House Sabras that Remington would be once again taking to the stars on behalf of the Dynasty, they decided to cover their investment by sending a junior member of the house (actually a vat-bred clone of Remington's own gene-code) to 'observe and learn from' his illustrious kinsman. Thus they dispatched Tyrion Sabras (based unashamedly on Tyrion Lannister from 'Game of Thrones'... except for the height), accompanied by his security consultant/bodyguard, a former Kasrkin commando, know simply as 'Cadian' and also an expert helmsman to replace the deceased Rail Cobalt, a Footfallen by the name of Stark (maybe even Lando Stark??... forget it, it's a long, obscene story).

Before they even departed the Lathes, a delegation of senior Arch-Magi approached the group with a business proposition. Guide and escort an Adeptus Mechanicus expedition to Zayth, assist in the pacification of the planet and aid the Mechanicus in gaining control of a, largely intact, Zaythian land-ship. In return, the Sabras Dynasty would have exclusive trade rights to supply the Mechanicus colony, as well as ship out the mined wealth and continue to sell the advanced Zaythian pattern macro-batteries that the Mechanicus will asssume production of. The group liked the sound of the offer and agreed almost immediately, merely requesting a slight delay before commencement, to re-establish their trade links and contracts in the expanse before this grand undertaking. Thus the contracts were signed and gene-locked, the Ordained Destiny and Medusa would meet up with the Explorator fleet at Port Wander in 10 months time.

One last little hiccup remained before the PCs could depart the Lathes and head towards the Maw... their navigator was missing!! It appeared that Quintus of House Aleene had developed quite a gambling habit during the ships enforced down-time. A man-hunt through the lower pits of one of the Lathes Forge-cities followed, culminating in Lucius having to champion the heavily indebted Quintus in a pit-fight to the death against a captured Rak'Gol marauder... and emerge victorious!

This was just a refresher session, to acquaint players with new characters (and familiarise one brand new player with the game in general) and remind me of what's involved in GMing a game. I hope you liked the sound of it, it should be great fun. Please feel free to offer feedback or ask questions. Both the players and myself love to read other folks thoughts.

Sounds like a very promising start

I think it has the makings of a fun campaign... I just need to do the paperwork on setting out the breakdown of the endeavour. I think it can safely be regarded as a 'Grand Endeavour', so 2,500 - 3,000 achievement points... but how to slice that up into manageable chunks is the trick.

So we finally had another session of the new campaign arc... another brief one, this time featuring some space combat, just to the players and myself back into the swing of things. With their gambling-addicted Navigator confined to his sanctum, the explorers set off from the Lathes, eager to return to Port Wander and re-establish their business operations before venturing back into the freedom of the Expanse.

En route through the Calixis Sector, on the third of their scheduled recalibration warp exits, they received an ope-channel hail from a squadron of Imperial Navy frigates. The naval craft were in pursuit of a trio of ships under the banners of the Saynay clan, fleeing from Dusk with a hold full of fresh slaves for the markets of Iniquity. They were requesting all loyal vessels of the Imperium to aid in the capture/destruction of these heretic renegades.

The enemy vessels were a pair of Infidel class raiders and a Soulcage Slave Ship. They had cut through an asteroid field to try to shake off the naval frigate pursuit, but unfortunately for them, the Ordained Destiny (with Remington, Lucius, Stark & Cadian aboard) and the Medusa , with Tyrion in command and manning the weapons station, were moving rapidly to intercept their exit from the ice belt. Finally, the PCs had the opportunity to use their newly acquired Nova Cannon, to quite impressive effect. The new crew members all acquitted themselves superbly, with excellent piloting from Stark, and magnificent shooting from both Cadian & Tyrion.

The Infidels Torpedo attacks were easily handled by the CVP of the ' Destiny' s fighter squadrons and they launched a devastating bomber assault on one of the raiders. They were not really in the mood for the additional workload of taking prisoners or claiming and refitting prizes, so they went for the kill on all three heretic vessels (including the Soulcage, with it's cargo of innocent slaves). Amazingly, once they blasted through the hull integrity of the enemy craft, they scored identical crit results on all three... plasma drive explosion!

When the Navy frigate squadron finally emerged from the asteroid field themselves, all they could detect were the party's two ships and the debris fields and energy signatures of three massive explosions, all that was left of the recidivists. They commended the fine gunnery of the Sabras Dynasty and confirmed that their bounties could be claimed at Port Wander.

It was a very fun session and served well to remind us all of the flow of space combat... next session should see the group finally return to Port Wander, for the first time in several years.

Knight of Dark Renown said:

Well, better than anything the poor bastards could have expected on Iniquity

It is right and proper and no more then the duty of any loyal Imperial subject to extend the Emperor's Mercy to those deserving of it.

Friedrich van Riebeeck, Navigator Primus, Heart of the Void

The above sentiments were pretty much what the players were thinking... though not quite so eloquently. I think the phrase used was "well, they're not slaves any more". Undoubtedly, any slave who knew what awaited them on Iniquity would have preferred instant vaporization anyway.

So, we finally had another session, seeing the Sabras Dynasty flagship return to Port Wander for the first time in several years. As the Ordained Destiny and the Medusa dropped out of the warp on the fringe of the Rubycon system, they commenced the standard communications protocols, announcing themselves to the station, the naval patrols and their own factors and holdings. This last group caused some concerns, however. The retainer that responded to their hail was only a junior commercia adept, who could not adequately explain the whereabouts of the Factotum Primus. Worse again, when the adept sent them a data-burst of the dynasty's current financials, the picture was not pleasant... lost contracts, outstanding debts and their main asset - a dry dock facility - seemingly lying dormant!

Immediately the Medusa , under the command of Tyrion, altered course from the station to the dry-dock facility to investigate, while the remainder of the party stayed aboard the Ordained Destiny and slipped into their berth in close orbit off Port Wander. Once all of the formalities were observed, the explorers made their way to the Gilt Processional. They had several items of business to attend to - they wished to recruit a mercenary company to bolster their military might; they needed to claim their bounty from the Naval offices for the Saynay Clan vessels they destroyed some weeks earlier; they had to get to the bottom of their faltering economic situation urgently.

While making their way to the Sabras offices, they had a brief meeting with a rival Rogue Trader; Aspyce Chorda, promenading through the processional with her entourage, A few words were exchanged, Chorda commenting on Remington's recent entanglements with the Inquisition - expressing her surprise the see Remington at large again. More importantly, she acknowledged the exemplary reputation in battle of the Ordained Destiny and Medusa and suggested that perhaps some future collaboration might be beneficial.

After this, the explorers finally got to delve into the dynasty's financial woes. The sole junior adept in the offices explained that, when word reached the station that the explorers were the 'guests' of the inquisition, almost all of the staff fled and many business partners cut ties, fearing guilt by association. In desperation, the Factotum Primus, a long time retainer by the name of Nguyen, sought other business opportunities, with some less than legitimate parties. The junior adept confirmed that one of these contacts was a 'Mr Finn' though she knew little other useful information.

At this point, the party received a vox message from the Medusa . Tyrion reported how there had been no responses from the dry-dock to any hails. He had ordered five companies of armsmen from the Medusa into the complex to determine what state it was in. Within an hour, all contact had been lost with two of the companies, so Tyrion ordered the other three to withdraw and seal off all exits. This would need the impressive abilities of the explorers in person.

The party made their way to the dry-dock facility, outfitted with their full wargear. They entered the dimly lit hallways, melta-carved from the interior of an asteroid and immediately spotted signs of death and carnage. They were immediately on edge, but cautiously continued deeper into the complex. Their keen senses, augmented further by cybernetics and the sensoria in the power-armour helmets, finally alerted them to some movement ahead in the tunnels. Suddenly, the shadows in a side chamber erupted into movement... 3 blurringly fast shapes surged towards Cadian and Stark, low-slung, with fanged maws and four, razor taloned arms - Genestealers! A bloody battle followed, the explorers trying to find distance to allow them to bring their advanced weaponry to bear, while the vile xenos pursued them to unleash barrages of claw attacks.

Cadian, Tyrion and Stark all suffered serious wounds and, when two more genestealers joined the battle from an adjoining corridor, it looked very grim, but finally Lucius managed to slay one of the beasts with a blow of his Omnissian Power Axe, and Cadian and Remington landed telling shots from their inferno pistols. Eventually, with four of the creatures down, the last one fled deeper into the facility. The explorers decided to take the critically wounded Tyrion back to their medicae and re-think the strategy for reclaiming their complex. They will need to do some research on their foe and consider what resources they can call upon to aid them...

Genestealers? Yikes!

Yep, I thought, if the Factor was dealing with Thran Finn, one of the lines of business he might be involved in would be transit of specimens for the beast houses, but containing Genestealer specimens is tricky and often ends in disaster...

New session over the weekend, was all focused around the party resolving their genestealer problem. There was some discussion of reporting the infestation to the appropriate authorities - but they couldn't even agree on who were the appropriate authorities in this situation. They had to wait for Tyrion to heal up before considering venturing back into the Dry-dock complex, so in that time they did some research on Genestealers and Tyranids in general, to get a better idea of what they might face.

The other piece of business they attended to was recruiting a mercenary compliment on long term retainer. it took a few meetings, but they finally secured the services of 'Artemiev's Free Company', a venerable mercenary unit formed centuries ago by Cadian exiles and IG retirees. Even to this day, the officer corps still recruits many Cadians mustered out of the guard. Eventually contracts were signed and over a period of a week or so, the Mercenaries were housed in the barracks onboard the Ordained Destiny.

The players did briefly consider assigning the Mercs the task of hunting down the genestealers, but decided that the fewer people knew about the xenos the better. So a couple of weeks after their first foray and discovery of the aliens, they explorers were finally ready to return and finish the job. The full party was present and armed for bear. A variety of melta-type guns, power weapons and even xeno-filament grenades were prepped and a thorough scanning of the facility highlighted the apparent centre of heat source and activity.

The team entered the complex through a maintenance hatch, as close to the pinpointed area as possible, the heavily armoured Lucius leading the way. They encountered resistance almost immediately... some of their own armsmen, from the initial search a few weeks previous, obviously subverted by the bite of the genestealers. The party carved through these sentries easily, including a memorable 60 damage shot from a multi-melta that annihilated 2 of the armsmen plus a healthy portion of asteroid wall, floor and ceiling.

Once they had a secure foothold in the complex they made their way towards the storage chamber that their scans had identified as the centre of activity. From here on, the session became a long running battle, with various waves of brainwashed guardsmen and a genestealers surging at the explorers from every possible chamber and side tunnel. Luciius took some scratches and Tyrion once again got badly mauled, but otherwise the party prevailed with little difficulty, in the end discovering their former factor, Nguyen, simpering and wheedling among his new xenos masters. He was gunned down along with his alien overlords, in a hail of melta blasts, plasma pulses and razor sharp wire filaments.

in the aftermath, the PCs used teams of flamer equipped servitors to scour the entire dry-dock of any xenos taint and, within a couple of weeks, they were finally able to get the facility up and running as a profit making concerns again. From here, the group has about 4-5 months left to them before their scheduled rendezvous with the mechanicus explorator fleet, so I will present them with a few business opportunities and see which, if any, take their fancy.

I wonder how many people had already already wandered off to start genestealer cults elsewhere in the system? or left on other ships?

Quite a few most likely... that's why the crew are eager to get off Port Wander soon

Well it's been a long time... haven't done much gaming at all in the last few months and will probably infrequent for the next few as well. We did however manage to squeeze in a very fun session a couple of weeks back...

In the aftermath of the Genestealer purge (and cover-up), the team decided that they couldn't risk making any warp voyages before the next contract commenced. They would be in danger of missing their rendezvous with the large Mechanicus Exporator fleet of 7 vessels bound for Zayth if they experienced any significant level of time dilation (they only had about 4 months before their scheduled meeting). They also launched a program of disinformation regarding the destination of this journey mission, to try to limit the likelihood of attack by rivals and/or pirates.

The party opted to use their time on Port Wander to re-establish some of their business interests (particularly their dry-dock facility) and investigate the possibility of expanding their fleet - there were a couple of ships/hulls in various states of repair, but no deals could be struck. Cadian was keeping an ear to the decks in case news of any criminals or fugitives transiting through the station reached his ears and Tyrion negotiated an escort contract with a ship of Jonquin Saul's merchant fleet, as there had been reports of a surge in Eldar Corsair activity throughout the Maw and even in the outlying regions of the Rubycon system.

Finally, an interesring lead made it's way to Cadian's ears... Gravus Saynay, one of the patriarchs of the diabolist clan of Dusk, was hiding somewhere on or around Port Wander, attempting to find a ship to carry him through the Maw and beyond the borders of Imperium space. After Cadian had failed to get a location for the renegade through his own sources and contacts, the Helmsman Stark took a more direct approach. He let word get out, through his own underworld network, that the Ordained Destiny would be journeying to the Expanse within the next few months and would be willing to offer passage, for a substantial fee.

It appeared that Gravus was willing to discuss terms and so a meeting was arranged, deep in the abandoned underdeck regions of the station. Unfortunately, the whole deal was an elaborate setup, right back to the patriarch even being on Port Wander. This was a ploy to lure the crew to a trap, in revenge for the Saynay Clan vessels that the Ordained Destiny had destroyed some months earlier to aid an Imperial Navy patrol. When the explorers reached the meeting place, they were greeted by the sight of a group of cultists sacrificing a handful of captives to call forth a trio of 'Blade Things' (lesser Daemons) while a Saynay Sorcerer summoned a greater evil, a Waking Nightmare!

The team killed the sorcerer swiftly, but the damage had been done... the great Daemon manifested and attacked. As is often the case with Daemons, the fear effect was one of the most potent abilities (Tyrion and Remington both succumbing) and made the early stages of the fight quite precarious. However, once all of the explorers regained their wits, their weaponry and skills were sufficient to defeat the warpspawn.

That was where we finished... next time will probably see the Ordained Destiny and Medusa running as escorts into Eldar infested space...